I received an email from my Congressman, Tim Bishop, informing me I have been awarded two tickets. Since then, no one takes my calls!
More below....
As soon as I got the email on 12/23/08, I responded and got a message the staffer in charge of inaguration tickets was out of the office until January 5. Okay...I guess I'll wait.
On January 5th, I emailed the staffer again, saying I know she must be busy being her first day back and all but if she could call me at her earliest convenience, that would be great. No response.
Next day I get a phone message from a local staffer from Bishop's office asking me to call back. When I do, she's snippy, saying that they had to bother to call me as I hadn't confirmed yet if I was taking the tickets. I pointed out to the young miss that I had indeed responded 2x to the email I recieved oh and by the way, the email telling me I won the tickets only said I had to contact them if I didnt want them.
No apology and she was anxious to get off the phone. I said, wait I have questions.
You see, my congressman is also hosting a viewing reception and I wanted to attend that as well(the email said I could). In addition, I thought as I have a herniated disc, if I had problems standing the whole time, I would have somewhere else where I could go and watch the festivities.
Miss Snippy said "no" I couldnt attend both and I had to choose one or the other. I told her I was taking the tickets for now and would speak to my daugher about our options and get back to her if I was going to play it safe and go to the reception, where I knew I would be able to sit down.
The next day I call the local staffer 3x. Each time I call she has " just stepped out". I finally left a voicemail for her asking that she please call me back. Two days go by and nada.
So, back I go to emailing the staffer in Washington. I explain I am having trouble contacting the local staffer and to please contact me. No response.
This afternoon, I called Tim Bishop's office and explain to the nice gentlemen who answers the phone my tale of woe. He apologies for the problems I am having and says I really need to speak to so and so.
" Oh",I say, " You mean the person I've been emailing for weeks and who doesnt answer any of my emails is the only person I can talk to? Okay, put her on." He then tells me she's out of the office.
Oh, the irony of the situation. I call Washington to complain the local staffer is always out of the office and the Washington person I have to complain to is out of the office. I started laughing...what else can one do?
Anyway, rather than put me thru to the person who never answers my emails voicemail, the gentleman instists on taking a personal message and he promises I will have a call back by the end of the day. Anybody want take odds on that bet?
So, I'm just wondering if anyone else out there won tickets to the inauguration through the lottery and is being jerked around or it is just me? These things do really tend to happen to me alot.
Update: As of this morning, the call I was promised from Congressman Bishop's office by close of business yesterday hasnt happened. I wish someone had taken my bet--I could use the cash to cover my costs of going to DC:)
Update #2:
I just called Bishop's office again and spoke to the person who I've emailed 5x with no answer and who was supposed to call me yesterday. I asked her why she didnt call me and she passed on the message to call me to the local staffer who has always "just stepped out of the office" when I call.
I asked a nicely as I could:" I called you to complain about the local staffer who wont retun my calls, you get the message, and instead of calling me, you pass it on to the person I called you to complain about who of course didnt call me after getting your message. Does that even make sense?"
What could she say? Now she was stuck trying to help me. I explained the whole story over again, including the part where she never returned my 5 emails and she interrupts me to say, unbelievabley, " I got over 800 emails and I havent answered any of them."
I'm stunned. Let see, I think they only got 170+ tickets so that means most of the people who got ticktes have emailed her,what, 3 or 4 times, just like I did and she just ignored them?
Her reason for ignoring 800 emails? " We didnt have the details about the tickets yet"
Again, I am just stunned. Couldnt she have set up an auto reply saying that? And what about the people like me who had emailed her with questions about the Congressman's reception etc and not ajustaboutthe tickets? We all got ignored.
As a constituent, I just gotta wonder what would happen if I had a major issue. I also gotta say no wonder everything in DC is so screwed up. I get better customer service at my local 7-11 and all they are responsible for is ringing up my Slurpee, not running the country.
I was promised Bishop's Chief of Staff would call me and get everything straightened out. We shall see.
Update# 3
As promised, Congressman Bishop's Chief of Staff did call but I was out. When I called back, he was out but is spoke to the nice gentelman(Oliver) again and he confirmed for me everything was a go. I have my tickets and I'm on the list for the reception in case I have trouble standing for so long due to my bad back.
THANK YOU OLIVER:)